When we speak of posession by evil spirits, the dramatic posessions of the Bible come to mind, or perhaps the movie The Exorcist. And while these happen, and I believe they are a much more common occurance than our western minds are prepared to accept, I believe we are all posessed in some degree or another by evil spirits. In the temple we learn that if we do not live up to every word that has proceded out of the mouth of God, we will be in Satan's power.1 Guess what: none of us live up to every word,2 and thus he legitimately takes power. I believe this is part of God's design to bring us to our knees and "cry out" to him. The Lord has an agenda for each of us in this life. He has given us weaknesses in a studied way to hopefully accomplish His purposes in making us humble. We are the weak things.

"And he shall cast out devils, or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men." (Mosiah 3:6)

When we erupt at our children in anger, we are giving voice to the evil spirits which posess us. When we are enraged on the road at some driver which cut us off, we are giving voice to the evil spirits within us. The same when we are driven by compulsions.

I have a friend who had an experience once where evil spirits had greater power over him. All the things that irritated him on a normal basis suddenly multiplied times a hundred. He overcame this experience, but reflecting upon it, he realized that he wasn't being posessed by any new spirit, it was the spirits which already dwelt in his heart that came out with greater fury in his weakened state.

This is something that I believe is not out of the ordinary, but is the common experience of all men.

 

Notes

1. Or as George A. Smith stated "if you cross to the devil’s side of that line one inch".

2. See article: The Law of Moses.

 

See Also

Todd White: "The fire of God - it will cost you. But it is so worth it. Don't let complacency determine who you are in Christ. Do not let passive Christians around you dictate your relationship with God."

"People ask today, 'What's the scariest thing you've ever done?' And honestly, I'm not afraid, so I don't know how to answer that one. I'm in situations all the time that would be scary if you're selfish. It's not scary if you're selfless. If I'm there for the purpose of representing Him, then I'm not afraid because I'm never gonna die. If I hold onto me because I have reservations and I'm trying to preserve myself and trying to create boundaries so no one hurts me, you're in trouble and you'll be hurt. If you've got to have boundaries to protect yourself because you've been hurt before: that's not selfless, that's selfish. That's self-preservation. You're trying to hold onto you so that nobody gets into your heart and hurts you again. Dude, give that thing up because you'll be hurt. If you can be touched, you will be touched. Does that make sense? If you're touchable, you will be touched. You're not supposed to have buttons: 'They push my buttons.' That's demonic. That's no ok. That's not Christianity." See @ 20m.